With all provincial health orders being lifted earlier this week, businesses are now navigating health measures on their own and a new survey found the majority of Saskatoon businesses will not be asking customers to mask up or show proof of vaccinations.
The Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce asked roughly 280 city businesses their opinions on the lifting of restrictions.
Fifty-two per cent of businesses say they have not experienced a drop in customers or visitation, with eight per cent saying they did notice a drop.
When asked if they’ll continue to require masks inside their business, 35 per cent said they will continue to require masks, and 50 per cent said they will not ask customers to mask up.
Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce CEO Jason Aebig says most businesses are happy to have things going ‘back to normal.’
“People were ready for the change and appear to have taken it in stride. So that’s good for businesses who were sort of unsure about how their customers were going to respond to these changes. Overall, it doesn’t seem to have had too much of a negative impact,” said Aebig.
Over half of those surveyed said they were okay with removing the vaccine passport and mask mandate, with a quarter of them saying they’d prefer if the measures had stayed.